The Present invention relates to an electric jack, and more particularly to such an electric jack which enables the cable to be quickly and positively installed without the use of a hand tool and, which has means to receive the end of each electric wire of the cable.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an electric jack for use in a communication network. This structure of electric jack is comprised of a housing, a circuit board mounted in the housing, two terminal holders mounted in the housing at two opposite sides and pressed on the circuit board, a cable positioned in between the terminal holders, the cable having a plurality of electric wires respectively inserted through respective terminal slots in the terminal holders, and two caps respectively covered on the terminal holders. This structure of electric jack has numerous drawbacks as outlined hereinafter.
1. The electric wires of the cable must be separately pressed into the terminal slots at the terminal holders with a hand tool, enabling the conductor in each electric wire to be forced into contact with a respective terminal in each terminal slot.
2. Because the electric wires are respectively suspended in side notches at the caps after installation of the cable, the conductors of the cable tend to be damped, resulting in a short circuit.
3. Because the terminal holders cover only a part of the circuit board, the middle part of the circuit board is opened to the outside and tends to be damped.
The present invention has been accomplished to provide an electric jack, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks. It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an electric jack, which enables the cable to be quickly and positively installed without the use of a hand tool. It is another object of the present invention to provide an electric jack which has means to protect its terminals, electric wires and circuit board against damp. According to one aspect of the present invention, the electric jack is comprised of a housing, a circuit board mounted inside the housing, a terminal holder mounted inside the housing and covered on the circuit board to protect the circuit board against damp, a plurality of forked terminals mounted in respectively holes at the terminal holders and welded to respective plug holes at the circuit board beneath the terminal holder, a cable positioned in the terminal holder and having electric wires respectively connected to the forked terminals, and a plurality of holding down caps respectively pivoted to the terminal holders and turned between a first position where the electric wires of the cable are held down by the holding down caps to make a respective electric contact with the forked terminals, and a second position where the holding down caps are disconnected from the electric wires of the cable for enabling the cable to be disconnected from the terminal holder. According to another aspect of the present invention, the terminal holder comprises two stop blocks at two opposite sides, each stop block having a Plurality of recessed receiving holes at an inner side, which receive the end of each electric wire of the cable.